Cancer Legal Care and State Support Announce the Connections Project
State Support is excited to announce a new project with our legal services community partner, Cancer Legal Care (CLC), a nonprofit law firm providing free legal advice and services to Minnesotans facing cancer. The Connections Project is a co-envisioned endeavor to broadly share information about LawHelpMN.org with CLC’s connections in the Minnesota health care and cancer support communities. Through this joint communications effort, State Support hopes to develop relationships that will increase the reach of LawHelpMN across sectors, while CLC simultaneously expands the provision of legal support resources to assist with the myriad issues that can come up during a cancer diagnosis.
CLC’s long-standing legal work in Minnesota provides vital services for those whose lives are upended by cancer. Since 2019, CLC’s direct legal services have protected or recovered more than $5,000,000 for their clients by way of successful insurance appeals for denied cancer treatments, life insurance benefits, private disability benefits, and securing monthly income streams through Social Security disability benefits when clients are no longer able to work. Anyone affected by any cancer (patient, survivor, or caregiver) living anywhere in the state is eligible for CLC’s services. To date they have served clients in 79 of Minnesota’s 87 counties.
In 2026 and 2027, CLC and State Support will offer information and tools on legal topics that affect the Social Determinants of Health so that health providers can better assist their patients with issues that fall outside of CLC’s direct service areas. Beginning this month, emails highlighting different resources available on LawHelpMN.org will be sent to health providers monthly and regular deep-dive webinars on topic-specific resources available through the site will be offered. Webinar topics for the first year of the project will cover government benefits, rental housing issues, debt collection, child custody and DOPA arrangements, and divorce.
Lindy Yokanovich, Cancer Legal Care’s founder and executive director, said of the project “CLC is excited to partner with our friends at State Support to create more awareness and understanding in the health care community about the resources LawHelpMN provides to assist their patients. Because legal services play an important role in addressing Social Determinants of Health, we look forward to strengthening the partnership between the medical and legal fields.”